On June 5th - 7th, 2005, sixty leaders from around the world gathered at Wye River, Maryland, U.S.A., for a path breaking meeting entitled "Innovations in Supporting Local Health Systems for Global Women's Health: A Leader's Symposium".This diverse group of participants, ranging from cabinet ministers to advocates, academics to local practitioners, shared a common goal: to shine a bright spotlight on urgent challenges in global women's health and the critical need to pioneer innovations in strengthening local health systems to address those challenges.
Download the Wye River Report:
"Innovations in Supporting Local Health Systems for Global Women's Health" (2.3MB)
Addressing tragic international rates in maternal mortality, rising HIV&AIDS infection rates and the absence of adequate health care, the 60 world leaders spoke in one voice to demand action for the global crisis in women's health.
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At the conclusion of a three-day conference hosted by Mary Robinson, Madeleine K. Albright and Columbia University's Allan Rosenfield, participants authored and signed a declaration (101KB) calling upon all political leaders to recognize the critical importance and appalling state of women's health.
Keynote speaker, Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, stressed that ?without such leadership, little good will happen.?
Albright spoke of the need to address one of the two leading causes of death among women of reproductive age in developing countries ? pregnancy related complications. ?Every year these complications kill an estimated 600,000 women. These tragedies command far less attention than terrorism because these horrors occur off camera and out of sight in dusty villages and shantytowns where nothing grows, except the appetites of small children.?
Albright continued, "While President Bush and Prime Minister Blair commit the U.S. and Britain to provide more debt relief for Africa, conference organizers urge both leaders and other world figures to give the same priority to women's global health.
"Solving the global conflicts and challenges begins with securing women's and girls' health for the next generations,? urges Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and current President of EGI. ?Universal access to health care is not a myth or a dream. It is a human right. We cannot implement that human right without effective health systems. We need a worldwide movement ? led by women ? to make that simple message stick.?
The conference and its resulting "Call to Action" focused on these starkly revealing human statistics that occur every minute of every day:
5 more women join the 20 million women currently living with HIV/AIDS; 190 women conceive an unwanted or mistimed pregnancy; one woman dies while giving birth; and countless women and girls suffer the health consequences of malnutrition, chronic and communicable diseases that disproportionately affect women, gender-based violence, harmful traditional practices, and war and civil conflict.
Renowned global health expert and Dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health Allan Rosenfield stressed the urgency of the issues as they impact women: ?Dramatically decreasing the number of women dying from pregnancy-related complications is doable NOW, and it is simply incomprehensible how little attention has been given by governments to this issue. We must state categorically that women's lives count, and we DO know what needs to be done.?
He added, ?Similarly, the impact of HIV/AIDS on women, and in particular, on girls 13-18 years old, is a tragedy of unprecedented magnitude, which can be addressed with interventions that already exist.?
Featured speaker, Marian Wright Edelman, CEO and Founder of the Children's Defense Fund explained why she chose to attend, ?This conference is extraordinary because it affirms what does work, what can be done, and now we just have to get the right people to do it.?
